Does anyone regret bifolds?

[NameyMcNameName]

I’m looking at my extension plan and wondering if anyone has ever regretted their bifolds? I will have a patio and hopefully veranda so bifolds will be lovely in the summer, but what about winter? What if you just want to open them a little?

They’re Origin Soho range, I think they’re lovely, a modern take on crittal. TBH about the same price as steel doors but without all the maintenance needed!

Pebble grey colour, they come in all RAL colours.

Really wide sliding doors that stack three or four deep are good because they can also have a couple of flyscreens too.

There are lift up glass windows - like fire station doors that turn into a glass awning.

Bifolds are great if they are tall but still leave enough wall above them to install blinds and roll up fly screen.

I've seen a very large out door patio that has sliding screen doors between the veranda posts and a bifold door out of the house. Thus, when bifolds are open the screens much further out can stop bugs.

The framing is ugly and usually doesn’t suit the period of the home. Victorian homes originally had wooden doors and window frames, as per the image I offered up. Bifolds belong in newbuild homes. I was objecting to the lack of vernacular, the ugliness and large and often bulky frames, my objection fully stands.

I regret mine. We rarely open them fully even in summer as they no longer fit well and are hard to close. The channel they run in traps dirt. They are very draughty in winter.

Did yours open/fold inwards rather than outwards?

There is no point having bifolds or sliding windows or any glass structure if you’re going to ruin it with blinds. Just use privacy stickers surely.

This is what puts me off getting them, flies ! I hate the bastard things they make me so angry 😆

reading all these posts, I keep jumping between wanting them and not wanting them!

I bloody hate flies though, and were south facing too. And I don’t want the faff of having to clean blinds 24/7.

loving the look of critall, and I want this type of internal door on the end leading from our living area to the kitchen/extension so we get plenty of light from the skylight into the living room.

I keep hearing about critall doors, are they like French doors ?

i do a bit. They’re gorgeous and I love them but French doors would probably have been ok and cheaper. That said I do love that we don’t have the doors opening out onto the patio as we have doors already from conservatory (kind of l shape) and it would have blocked off a corner and intruded a lot

I think they’re like this

I've got our bi-folds open at the moment, they're east facing, but we have floor to ceiling south facing and west facing windows too.

There are currently about 150 flying things sat on those south facing, non-bi fold windows.

On days where I only open 1/5th of the door, I get about 1/4rd the flies, and at least 1 wasp.

On days where I open all the bi-folds, I get 5 wasps and 150 flying things.

HOWEVER

I am surrounded by large shrubs and 50ft from a river, which makes an awfully big difference to the level of critters you get. There are clouds of the buggers outside all day long right now.

If you don't want to evict wasps AND hate flies, don't get bi-folds! Unless you live somewhere where nothing green grows.

That said, they're all dumb. They sit on the south facing windows getting baked by the sun all day and at the end of the day most of them die from heat exhaustion. I get a lot of floor debris.

The flying things generally aren't problematic because all they're interested in doing is sunbathing and then dying.

I like these indoors (don’t have them but friends do).
I don’t like them for the patio, as they block the view (don’t have them but friends do).

We have bifolds with build in blinds. No insect problem at all- maybe one dopey fly every week or so will stay inside. We have our doors open all day from May- September. They aren’t ideal - can overheat when shut in summer and foolishly chose black internal blinds rather than silver or something else reflective. But they keep the warmth in during the winter.

We installed them to replace French doors and they suit us much better. Our garden is nicely laid out and a big asset to the house so it’s nice to have it framed. We are still trying to work out how to secure them in the wind- lots of high trees make them wobbly which scares the dog. But dog loves being able to go in and out as she pleases. We have one service door and also a window above the sink so don’t need to open them fully for the dog in winter or to air the kitchen.

We used to have wood framed French windows, which we would have open in the summer.

We replaced them with bifold doors which we have open in the summer - in fact they are wide open now.

Insects do fly in sometimes but they used to fly in through the old doors too, we don't get more just because they are bifold doors.

We are buying a house with them but I don’t plan on using them as bi folds as I hate insects in the house. We have french doors in our current house and just open one door generally, so will just do the same in the next house. Otherwise the house we are buying is everything we want so I’ve overlooked it. Wouldn’t choose to put them in myself!

We got origin bifolds - a large expanse but within their tolerance. They never fitted properly - Origin even came out to advise the fitters but still the door was problematic - we have a gap in the winter so that in the summer we can close them. And our filter retired and now we really struggle to get anyone to service them - the seals need to be replaced but Origin have washed their hands of us poor after care - wouldn't service them couldn't give a shit either way.
I regret getting Origin Bifolds.